JANE N. SLATER

508-645-3378

(slaterjn@comcast.net)

Chilmark was hot this week, as was most of the Northeast. We can all be glad we were on the Island rather than the mainland. And tonight, Wednesday, as I write, I have a nice breeze blowing by that smells like the sea and surely promises relief.

I want to share an overheard comment I picked up on Basin Road this week. One traveler to another: I wonder if we can get a ferry to West Tisbury from here?

Congratulations to Josh and Angela Aronie, owners of the Menemsha Café who are now proud parents of Eli Gunner Elvis Danzer Aronie. He was born on June 26 and he already has many fans among the regulars at thecafé on Basin Road. We are all looking forward to his first visit to thecafé. His proud grandmother, Nancy Aronie, can now get back to business and will be gin her writing workshops this week and continue through Labor Day. Please call her for details.

We all send condolences to the family and friends of Dina Dececca of Melrose who was so unfortunately killed while biking on our Island. It is so hard to accept accidents but, sadly, they do happen. We hope her family finds peace.

Karen Flynn of the Bite tells us that Georgie Baptiste of Buzzards Bay is the winner of the FIFA World Cup T-shirt raffle!

We all send best wishes to Jonathan Mayhew, popular fisherman and selectman, who was injured while working on his boat at the dock this week. We are reminded that fishing is the second most dangerous job one can have. We are all happy to hear the report that he is well.

The schooner Tabor Boy was anchored off Menemsha beach again this week. They are on training and orientation cruises this month for the incoming freshmen at Tabor Academy. Welcome back to the Relamar, this year a for two-month visit.

Judy Jardin welcomed her daughter Jackie and her husband, Bo Hornbuckle and their daughters, Ruthy and Isobel for a July vacation. The family live in Leonardstown, Md.

Bill and Susan Shanok of New York are at their Middle Road home for the season.

Kathy Hayes of New York is vacationing in Chilmark this month. We all remember her late husband, David Levine, a well-known and talented artist, who died this past winter. David very much enjoyed his Chilmark visits and the many friends he had here. We all appreciate the hours of his talent that he donated to many Vineyard charities.

Judy Lane and her family invite the friends of the family to attend a celebratory tea in honor of her mother, Terese Lane, who died on March 7 this year. The tea will be at 9 State Road Aquinnah at 4 p.m. on July 11. Terese Lane was an annual visitor to Aquinnah for many years and had many friends here who will miss her.

Garth and Ollie Edwards enjoyed a brief but busy vacation at their Abel’s Hill home this month. They were here with their son Garth and his wife, Jenny. They also shared holiday visits with their daughter Nancy and her son, Hilly Thompson, and their granddaughter, Courtney, and her husband Ted and infant son, Van, and their granddaughter Cathy and her friends. Garth and Ollie are looking forward to returning to their Chilmark home in late August.

Bill and Betsy Ramsey are enjoying their annual vacation at their Larsen Lane home. This week their daughter, Karen, and her husband, Brad Milioto, were here from Los Angeles, and their son Greg and his guest, Heather Diskin, were here from Boston. Betsy’s dad, William Gilmour, is here from Wayland and we are happy that he is at his Larsen Lane home after a winter recuperating from a fall.

David and Jill Johnstone and their son, Jeremy, and daughter Heather, were at their Larsen Lane home. Their daughter and son in law, Kim and Kevin Kelley, came from Seattle for the family reunion.

Hariph and Ginger Smith of Winthrop, Me. are at their Larsen Lane home before going on an August trip to Alaska where they will visit Phil Smith, Hariph’s brother, who has resettled in Alaska.

The Yard is offering a program to be shown on Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the Yard Barn on Middle Road. It is a premier work by Amy Brenneman and starring her as well. It is called Mouth Wide Open. For details, please call the Yard at 508-645-9662.

The Chilmark library program on July 14 is called Sisters: An Anthology. Readings will be by Carol Gilligan, Jessica Harris, Rose Styron and Jan Freeman. The program starts at 5:30 p.m. and is open to the public at no charge.

Arnie Reisman, of Natick and Menemsha, is offering a staged reading of his comedy The Sound and The Ferry, ay the Vineyard Playhouse on July 26. Please call the playhouse at 508-696-6300 for details. Arnie also will cohost a Thursday, July 29 program at the Chilmark Community Center that will be a free, dramatic reading presented by the ACLU of Massachusetts. Fifteen authors will read short pieces written by authors barred from entering the U.S. for political reasons. Readers will be Robert Brus-tein, Anthony Lewis, Kate Feiffer, Geraldine Brooks, Alan Dershowitz, Linda Fairstein, Paula Lyons, Tony Kahn, Jessica Harris, Flash Wiley, Naomi Foner, Rose Styron, Harold Ramis and Jon Lipsky.

Olive Dakota Mills, 11 months, enjoyed her first visit to her great-great-grandfather Rasmus Klimm’s house in Menemsha this week. She is the daughter of Courtney Pichett and Wampsikut Mills. Olive’s grandmother Kristine Gaulet, uncle Tom Klimm, aunt Caroline Klimm and family friend, Robin Panousis, all gathered at the family home for the holiday reunion.

The women’s walking group will join Julie Coleman and Judy Maynes on July 15 for a walk at the Fulling Mill Brook Preserve off Middle Road. Please call Julie at 508-645-2261 for details.